Van Benthuysen

The story of the what became the Van Benthuysen family in Albany begins with the arrival of Paulus Martense in New Netherland. He settled in Albany and his descendants established the family there and elsewhere in New York.

His son, Baltus, was a a merchant during the early 1700s with houses in Albany and Kingston.

Although the marriage in 1699 of soldier's son James Parker and the widow who was born Geertruy Van Benthuysen produced no children, several family members were "James Parker Van Benthuysen" in honor of Albany's first city marshall.

In 1736, Kingston native Gerrit Van Benthuysen was an Albany resident and was elected alderman for the first ward. However, within a few years, he left the city and re-located to Dutchess County.

A list of Albany-area freeholders from 1763 included only the name of skipper James Parker Van Benthuysen.

In 1790, the first Federal census showed four Van Benthuysen-named households in the city of Albany (all in the first ward) and one more in surrounding Watervliet.

During the early 1800s, the family was prominent in Albany printing and publishing. Three Van Benthuysens were counted among the membership of the Albany Mechanics Society.

In 1813, nine Van Benthuysen-named addresses appeared in the city directory.

Since then, the Van Benthuysen family has spread out in New York State and across the country as well.

Sources:This overview sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources. Perhaps, the most comprehensive printed resource for the family is Alvin Seaward Van Benthuysen, The Van Benthuysen genealogy : descendants of Paulus Martense Van Benthuysen, of Benthuizen, Holland, who settled in Albany, N.Y., male and female lines; also, genealogies of certain branches of the Bleecker, Conde, DeForest, Lansing, Myer, Turk, Truex, Van Buren, Van Epps, Van Patten, Van Slyck and other families of Dutch and Huguenot origin in New York (Clay Center, Kansas: Wilson Engraving and Printing Co., 1953). Link to website on the family in printing and publishing.

Follow this link to more information on the family on this website!

Link to Van Benthuysen family members in the Index.